I need a vacation. Sure, the sun is slowly starting to show itself around these parts, but for the most part, we can still look forward to a solid couple of months of rain, cloud, and dark dreary-ness. As such, I’ve been thinking about going somewhere that’s a little different than Vancouver. I’m considering Hawaii and Mexico for the most part, but something even more exotic, maybe I should think about Buenos Aires, Argentina. Sure, I’ve experienced a touch of the “Latin America” culture when I went to Los Angeles last year, but c’mon, we know it just wouldn’t be the same as actually visiting South America.

For each locale, there is inevitably a travel guide site out there for you to peruse. Buenos Tours, example, has listings for all sort of information regarding the Argentinian town, including blurbs on attractions, dining, hotels, nightlife, shopping, and more. Those who have known me for a while will know that I love interesting architecture (I once dreamed of becoming an architect). Visiting “older countries”, like those in Europe, South America, and elsewhere is quite a trip, especially considering that the oldest building in Vancouver barely reaches the century mark. It’s funny that the key building the Buenos Tours site mentions is the Abasto Shopping Center, the largest mall in the city. Yeah, a mall. I thought it would have been a church (during the missionary days) or something.

There it is. I must say that it’s pretty breathtaking, but… it’s a mall of all things. It does give us a good view of the town, though. Where have you been that you’d say is worth seeing?

The preceding post was sponsored by Buenostours.com.

Dine Out Vancouver is a fantastic promotion that lets you sample food from upper class restaurants that you may not otherwise visit if it were not for the fantastic price during this two-week (or so) eating festival. Last week, we went to Rare Restaurant in Yaletown, and last night, I had the opportunity to head out for a quiet evening of fine dining with Susanne at William Tell Restaurant on Beatty Street in Downtown Vancouver, nearly next door to the recently deflated BC Place Stadium. They had their three-course menu set at the $35 level. For two people, including a couple of drinks (I had the chocolate-y Swiss Martini, whereas Susanne had the apple juice-infused William Tell Martini), taxes, and tips, the total bill came to a very well spent $115.

I was a little disappointed that we had no choice when it came to the appetizer and the dessert for the Dine Out menu, and that we only had two options when it came to the main course, but the food overall was very pleasing, well presented, and wholly satisfying. The service — our server’s name was Jason, an Asian fellow (which seems to be a rarity in terms of waiters in classier “Western” restaurants) was prompt, timely, and friendly without being in your face. As a Swiss restaurant, there were elements that felt French, whereas other things had a distinct German flavor to it. For example, when they presented us with the main course, it was covered. Upon revealing our meals before us, the servers said something in German that I didn’t understand, but I assumed it had the same meaning as “Bon appetit.” Overall, I’d say that the Swiss restaurant wasn’t particularly creative in what they did, but everything is executed beautifully and it tasted great.

On with the pictures!

The awning outside of William Tell Fine Dining Restaurant

Amuse Bouche: Tiger prawn with cream cheese and fruit salsa, served on bread
A “free” pre-appetizer courtesy of the chef.

Three types of bread baked together, capers found within
I thought it was interesting how they presented the bread. It had regular white, multigrain, and whole wheat, all baked together as one “unit”, if you will.

Appetizer: Lobster Bisque - Full flavoured yet light bisque served with fresh lobster
Unlike other establishments that have a bisque that is more “red” and more “tomato”-ey, the soup served at William Tell was thicker, almost stew-like, but still with a distinct seafood flavor. Very good.

My Main: Zurcher Geschnetzeltes - Thinly sliced veal and mushrooms in a white cream sauce with rosti potatoes and seasonal vegetables
The sauce was almost like cream of mushroom soup, but when combined with the veal, it created a nice blend of flavours. The potatoes were similar to hash browns, except it had onions inside as well. The asparagus was nice and crisp.

Her Main: Herb Crusted West Coast Sablefish - Baked sablefish with a tomato, caper and garlic sauce. Served with lentil du Puy and seasonal vegetables
I was expecting a firmer, meatier fish, but it came out quite soft. Somewhere between halibut and salmon, I’d say, and the softness was contrasted quite well with the lentils.

Dessert: Mini Chocolate Fondue - Toberlone chocolate fondue served with fresh fruit and a vanilla ice cream filled profiterole
Probably one of the most substantial desserts I’ve ever had at a Dine Out dinner. The Toberlone chocolate fondue was rich, but not too rich, the fruit was very fresh-tasting, and the ice cream was aromatic… French vanilla, perhaps.

Post Dessert: Swiss chocolate piece shaped with William Tell
Susanne and I both agree: the picture is a little too Jesus-like to hold in our laughter. Deep, dark, and delectable

More about Dine Out Vancouver on the Tourism Vancouver website

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As we gear up for Super Bowl Sunday in less than two weeks, everyone is abuzz with all the stories surrounding the big game in Miami. We’ve got the incredible defence of the Chicago Bears, led by legendary linebacker Brian Urlacher. We’ve got everyone’s favorite pretty boy, Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts, who is still working to overcome that Manning curse. Why mumble and rumble with yourself when there’s such a huge community out there who are just like you, chatting it up about how they’re surprised Chad Johnson didn’t make it this far, or how Tom Brady should have been able to keep his incredible playoff streak alive. Message boards are a huge thing on the internet (I belong to a few myself), and here’s another website with football boards.

I like how they have it organized by division for all us NFL fans out there, because that’s primarily where all the rivalries build up and where the most *ahem* constructive conversation can take place. College fans can also get their fix on Footballboards.com, because they have several sub-forums dedicated to the Big East, Big Ten, Pac-10, SEC, and so on. Cheer on your alma mater, sneer at your bitter rivals… it’s all in good fun.

After all, when Super Bowl XLI wraps up, there won’t be much to talk about regarding the NFL. Well, at least until trade talks come up.

Oh, and by the way, my money is on Indy. Peyton’s got to win eventually (and now that the Pats are off his back, he’s got a pretty good chance).

This post was sponsored by footballboards.com.

I love Honda. Make no mistake about it. I’m not that much of a fan of where they’ve been heading recently — away from performance and toward luxury — but they still have some of the better vehicles on the market. When you don’t have a lot of money to spend on a new car, your options are fairly limited. Let me preface this by saying that I can be pretty biased, so I’m not going to head out and buy a Ford Focus, Chevy Cobalt, and Dodge SX 2.0. As a result, when Susanne found herself in the market for a small car (preferably a hatchback) for around 20K, we found ourselves taking nice, long looks at the Toyota Yaris RS, the Volkswagen Rabbit, the Nissan Versa, and, her ultimate choice, the Honda Fit Sport. And here it is.

Pardon the pun, but I found the fit and finish on the Fit to be head and shoulders above the Yaris. The interior materials were of much higher quality than on the Toyota offering, and I found the overall design (at least on the inside) to be more appealing. Of course, this is coming from an owner of a 2000 Acura (Honda) Integra, so I’m clearly a little biased. Okay, a lot biased. She didn’t like the bulk and rigidity of the Versa, or the fuel inefficiency of the Rabbit, so the Fit Sport became the obvious choice (in Storm Silver). We took it for a short cruise on the evening of the day she got it, so I thought I would take the opportunity to get in a quick photoshoot too. Here are a few samples from that shoot.

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You know, ever since that whole Mike Tyson taking a bite out of Evander Holyfield fiasco, I’ve lost interest in boxing. It’s just not as interesting as it once was: I can’t even begin to fathom how exciting it would have been to take in the sights and sounds of a Muhammad Ali match or one featuring George Foreman before he started showing us how easy it was to grill at home.

Where there is a growing interest, however, is with Mixed Martial Arts. It started out with just the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), starring such incredible athletes as Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn, and Royce Gracie, but it has since gone on to birth several other organizations and a whole new generation of mixed martial arts combatants. Combine this with the concept of fantasy sports (I’m participating in a hockey pool with some friends) and you’ve got yourself MMAPlayground.

On this site, not only can you participate in mixed martial arts via a fantasy game not unlike all those NHL, NBA, MLB, and NFL pools out there, but you can also chat with a huge community of MMA enthusiasts via their UFC and Pride forum. Looks like a very promising site for anyone interested in mixed martial arts (especially if you’re the betting type). In fact, they’re offering a $500 prize for the first season of play. Good stuff, check it out.

Note: The preceding post was sponsored by MMAPlayground (via PayPerPost) but all opinions expressed are wholly mine.

Google isn’t just a search engine anymore. They’re fully into the whole Web 2.0 phenomenon, because they don’t only tackle the idea of sifting through the internet to find the most relevant page possible, but they take care of your email, aim to replace Microsoft Office in some ways (Google Documents & Spreadsheets is akin to Word and Excel), and oh so much more. One tool that I use excessively is the personalized Google homepage as it manages all those RSS feeds that I need on a daily basis as part of as my work for Mobile Magazine, Virtual Reality, and so on. But check out what they’ve done. They’ve taken a good idea and made it better (just like they did with Gmail).

The screenshot below will give you a better idea of what I’m talking about, but right now, I have it set up so that each RSS feed displays the three most recent titles. Normally, I’d have to visit the respective websites themselves to get any more out of them (I don’t use a conventional RSS reader), but now Google has implemented a little +/- button next to each article title. When I click on it, I get a brief snippet of the piece. So simple, yet so infinitely useful. Thanks Google. I appreciate it… because obviously they made this change just for me. Yes, just me. Because I’m that special.

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